The Puppet Master
by ListeningSilence
Summary: The bathhouse has a new boss, and with a power much stronger than Yubaba's, she's left Haku, and every other spirit, with no recollection of their pasts. Can Chihiro save the Spirit World from becoming property of a girl barely older than herself?
1. Forgetting

**I'll start by saying that the story begins 2 years after Chihiro leaves the Bathhouse, and when it says '***3 years later***' it means an additional 3 years later... So a total of five years after she left the bathhouse. Hope that explains some things...**

**Anyway, hello. If you are here, on , (Which, I suppose you must be), you are obviously cool. If you are here in the Spirited Away section of Anime Fiction (Which, if you weren't, I would be aghast), you are a badass. Just wanted to make sure you knew where you stood in the rankings of my mind. If you are my age, and STILL here, you are an upright A+ quadrupled mega special GOD(-ESS).**

**'Nough said. You can go read, now th-**

**Oh, shoot. I'm literally just typing as I think, and totally forgot to mention-**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. I don't own the characters (besides a few OCs that will arrive more fully in the future) and I don't own the setting, either. Or the original plot line, very briefly mentioned in here. Nothing. I'm not talented enough to claim right to any of Hayao Miyazaki's gorgeous creations. Like Haku. I mean, the kid's a _dragon._ And I don't own him. Damn.**

**Okay, go on.**

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><p>I found her standing there– just standing there- in the river. My river. She was up to her hips in the water, looking away. Her hair was tied back- when hadn't it been?- with the sparkling purple hair-tie that had been made especially for her so long ago. She was wearing the same clothes; holding the same, timid stance as when I had first laid eyes on her. I couldn't see her face, but of course I knew her name. I didn't think I'd ever forget it. I hoped I never would.<p>

Chihiro.

Seeing her brought back the past in a flood...

Memories of knowing Yubaba was waiting for me to report to her, as I did every night.

Knowing I'd never have a friend in the world, knowing I was all alone.

Knowing that I wasn't who I thought I was, knowing what I didn't know– my name.

I remembered it all, clear as the river water in front of me. Of course, those were only memories now. Gone. I _did_ find a friend. I _did_ find my name. Yubaba was no longer a concern to me. Everything that had happened was now, finally, becoming nothing but an unpleasant memory. And I thought, that when the memory had finally left me for good, everything would be different. I thought that when Chihiro left, she would be able to get along with her life, and I with mine.

I looked up again, at the girl in the river.

The girl I knew, and didn't know.

She turned to face me–

My eyes opened slowly, as if to meet her glance. But I was only looking at the sky, fathomless gray above me.

Just a dream.

It wasn't the first time I'd had the dream since Serendipity arrived. Serendipity, Yubaba's replacement.

Yubaba's bosses, the identities of which I would never know, never wanted to find out, had not been happy with the arrival and _escape _of a young girl, those two years ago. And in their rage, they had banished the bird woman, and brought in... her.

She was twice as strict, three times harsher, and four times younger.

She operated just as Yubaba had, with the use of names. She was different, though. She could do things that Yubaba couldn't. She was powerful, _overwhelmingly so, _for a girl barely older than I was. In fact, she had been so powerful, so dominant, that I had fled in cold blood, leaving the others in my wake to weather the damage.

Like a coward.

I couldn't help it, though. I couldn't restrain my curiosity. I'd gone back.

I'd overlooked the workers, crept into the bathhouse to witness this new girl's job on the place. How could she hope to keep the position at such a young age? There was no way she would be taken seriously.

But I had been wrong.

Everyone had been working in harmony; their movements in complete unison. Every single step, scrub, and breath seemed to be one, shared motion. As I watched, I noticed that they weren't speaking either, weren't even _looking_ at each other, or anything at all. Their eyes had gone blank, glassy, as if they were daydreaming, all of them at once.

I hadn't stayed long the first time.

But I _had_ gone back. Again and again.

I had caught a struggling worker, once or twice; I'd tried to speak to them, tried to get them to tell me what was going on–

_None of them _had said a word. Each of them just stood there, staring. They hadn't even seemed to recognized me. So I'd left them there.

But when I came back the next day, they were gone. This happened every time, without fail.

Once, I tried to board the train, to leave and get a hold of Yubaba's sister. But the train was never there; at least, it hadn't been lately. I'd tried to fly there, follow the tracks... but when I did, her house was empty. It wasn't the kind of empty that said, 'not home, be back soon', it was the kind of empty that held finality. It felt like she had gone for good. I couldn't imagine why... and it frightened me. No matter how many times I returned, searched the place... nothing. The only re-occuring difference was that even more dust had settled each time I walked in.

I was as running out of options.

In hindsight, it might not have been a brilliant idea to stay in that house. I had had no other choice, being merely fourteen and having no one to go to. I suppose I was sick of mooching off of the bathhouse's food, taking it from unsuspecting guests and sleeping in one of the Spirit's food stands. Still, looking back on the decision, it wasn't a smart one.

By the time I'd realized that, it was too late. I was already too far gone.

It took a few moments, after 'waking up' to feel the movement of my limbs. My mind was in a completely different place, I was still by the river, waking up from a dream, looking across the wide river from where she had come, wondering why I had lied to her, telling her I'd see her again.

I knew though, now, after so long of this, that if I focused hard enough, I could feel the control over me. I could even, for a few blessed moments, put my mind and body in the same place- I could feel her. Sometimes, I could even look at what my eyes were seeing.

But I kept losing it. I kept forgetting. More and more of my life was slipping away from my mind, and all I could remember now was the lie, the girl, the river, and the wrong.

What I couldn't remember?

What those things had meant to me.

In my head, when I wasn't concentrating hard enough, it was like life had moved on. But it wasn't the same. I slept and I woke, I wandered, ate, worked a small shift, and used my free time to my own devices.

But as I forgot my memories, I _felt_ each one slip away.

And sometimes it felt like I _wasn't _sleeping when I was, that I _wasn't _working when I was. Like I was–

It was like an itch.

Something'swrongsomething'swrongsomething'swrong–

It was like a drum beat.

The lie, the girl, the river.

The lie, the girl, the river.

The lie, the girl, the river.

I knew what this meant, because it wasn't the first time things had gotten like this. I knew that I was trying my hardest to hold on to these thoughts.

And I also knew why– it was because these memories were slipping away.

And just like every time it happened, just like every _single _time...

I started giving up the chant.

I started ignoring the itch.

Because could it really matter?

Maybe...

Maybe it was just a white lie, that I was thinking of. Maybe just an impulsive, childish cover-up...

Maybe the wrongness...

Maybe it was just one of those false anxieties.

And a river's just a river.

Maybe none of it mattered.

And maybe

Nothing

Was wrong at all.

Maybe

There

Never was

a Girl...

***3 years later***

When I got home, seeing mother and father waiting for me, it was obvious I'd irritated them.

"Chihiro," my father rumbled, "Why is there a C on this report card?"

"All you've had for the past three years have been straight As..." My mother's tone was degrading. Her face showing more disappointment than anger. My father, however, looked a bit on edge, if you asked me.

There shouldn't have been anything wrong with a C. Everyone got Cs. It was a passing grade, something to be proud of.

But apparently that didn't apply to me.

"I wasn't listening during class," I said honestly, knowing a lie would be suicide. Whenever I tried _that_... oh, they had always found out. "I kept falling asleep."

In fact, I was surprised I'd gotten a C at all. Guesswork wasn't a skill I usually had. Especially not in History. I could only assume I was getting more skilled with experience.

"Honey..." My mother said softly, "Why would you do that? You're in bed by 10:30 every night..."

"I bet you it's a boy," father said, grimacing. "That's what it is, isn't it?"

I sighed. "No, it's not–"

"Well then, what is it?"

I hadn't gone to bed at 10:30 every night. I had snuck out my window, and walked to the old carnival house, sitting and waiting there every other night, into the early hours of morning, hoping I could catch him when he came. If he came.

It was beginning to look like a lost cause. And having kept this up for five years, I was beginning to look desperate. And tired.

Spirits and ghosts and ancient bathhouses had taken over my life.

Because I knew they existed. It hadn't been a dream. No. No, I couldn't have been that.

"I..." I stuttered, "Nightmares." It wasn't a lie.

"Nightmares?" My mother asked.

"Nightmares," I said again, frowning. "They keep waking me up, and I can't fall back asleep. No matter how hard I try to forget about it, it just keeps coming back–"

"Oh, baby..." My mother had immediately switched to sympathy. My father was still eyeing me suspiciously.

I sighed. "History is my last block, and it's hardest to stay awake..."

"Well," my father sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You are not five years old anymore, Chihiro, and I expect better from you next term."

I nodded. What should I have said? 'I'm waiting for a River Spirit to come take me back to a Mystical Bathhouse filled with flying bird women and grunting green heads?' No.

Maybe it... Maybe it _was_ all a dream.

Or maybe... Maybe the river spirit just wasn't interested in me anymore.

Maybe he'd already forgotten me.

"I, I um..."

If he had forgotten me, then I was going to make sure he knew that I hadn't forgotten him.

"I want to do my homework out by the carnival house down the hill."

"Why there, dear?" Mom asked, lifting a hand to smooth down a stray strand of my hair.

"Because it's nice outside, and I wanted to take another look around that old place–"

Eventually, I had won the dispute. My father had brought up my grade again and again at first, insisting I ought to study instead of 'mess around'. I countered this with the fact that it was Friday, and therefore there was no immediate need to work on anything. Mom had taken my side, after a few good excuses, and it was just downhill for dad from there. He'd finally conceded to my request, as long as I brought something productive with me.

When I arrived at the river, I was unsurprised to find it just as dried out as it had been the last time I was here.

My math book was sitting, unopened, on the head of the two faced stone guarding the great old building, which now stood, paint still old and chipped, quite a ways behind me.

I remembered the day I'd left this place, and he'd told me not to look back. Told me he'd see me again.

Sometimes I still wondered what would have happened if I had looked back. Sometimes I wondered if not looking back meant not doing what I was doing now.

I didn't know why I was even thinking about it. it was obviously too late, now.

Holding my breath, as if I were crossing the bridge over the train-tracks and into the bathhouse, I stepped over the dry stones of the river bed and into the world of the spirits.

Oh, he was going to see me again. I didn't care if he didn't want to come for me. I'd come for him, if I had to.

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><p><strong>Yes. First Spirited Away Fanfic. Short chapter, I know, and some of the vague crap'll get clearer later, I promise, and I'll do as much as I can to update at a rather steady pace. Maybe once a week? I'll try that.<strong>

**Anyway, it'd be nice if you told me what you thought so far. Oh, and that reminds me, if you see any obvious typos or screw ups in setting or crap like that... please let me know. If you're, you know, interested enough to. I don't know... I kind of feel like if I say 'REVIEW!' like all of the other people out there, that I'll be ignored. So I'm just gonna ramble... and probably be ignored anyway... but oh, well. I'm gonna act all ignorant, and pretend as if you're actually reading this meaningless clutter of thick black letters. This would entail me thanking you, wouldn't it? Yeah, I'll go with that.**

**Thanks,**

**Susu.**


	2. Ouji

**Finally got the next one. Sorry, I got distracted with some other projects. But hey... it's here now, so... yeah.**

****Note- The line always represents a POV change, though I will not reveal the POV until it becomes obvious in the story.**

**Disclaimer: No. I own not Haku, not Chihiro/Sen, or the setting. All belongs to Miyazaki.**

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><p>The streets were empty. The shops stood still, food set out and waiting, hot and steaming, beckoning to any unfortunate human such as myself. Night hadn't fallen yet, the sun hadn't set... so the Spirits hadn't come to cater to their shops. But I knew that inside the bathhouse, there had to be residents. I was riding on the chance that Haku was still there... maybe waiting for me, if he wasn't going to come.<p>

When I reached the Bridge, I stared at the smooth wood, suddenly struck with a thought. Was it too late to hold my breath as I crossed it, now? Did the rule apply to each individual visit, or was I condemned to be visible since I hadn't been able to cross the last time? If it wasn't too late, would Haku be able to see me as he had been able to before, if I held my breath?

What if I had made it across last time? Would Haku have ceased to see me, the moment I took that last step off the bridge?

I'd been wondering too much, lately.

I shook my head to myself. No, it was too much of a risk to hold my breath. What if he _couldn't_ see me when I got to the other side?

I took the first step, taking a deliberate breath as my foot touched the surface, and breathing in and out evenly as I crossed. With each new breath, each new step, I felt like I was becoming more and more vulnerable.

I closed my eyes, letting myself become a part of the Spirit World. Trying to erase every doubt I had of my old friend.

When I opened them again, I was looking at a girl with dark eyes, staring coolly back at me.

* * *

><p>"My name is Serendipity," the girl said, taking a step closer. Her dark brown eyes met my green ones with familiarity, prodding at my memory.<p>

"Of course; I could never forget you, Serendipity," I said, smiling at her where she sat across from me in the grass. "It's been so long, though."

"I know, Ouji," she said, smiling. My lips tilted up at the corners at the sound of my name on her voice, as if it were a song. "I've missed you, too."

She crawled forward until she was sitting next to me, her head on my shoulder, her hazelnut hair tickling my neck. I was smiling, now, wider. She was so close- I remembered when we were children, before she had been forced to leave me. I didn't want her to go away again.

"Why did you come back?" I asked.

She looked up, her face only inches from my own, her expression hurt. It was like a threat, when she did that. She didn't seem to intend it, but any expression of pain that crossed her face fed a red glow in my chest. "You don't _want_ me to go, do you?"

"No, of course not, I-"

She nuzzled my cheek, cutting me off when I lost my breath, but I stared straight ahead, eyes riveted on a small, pink berry that was just beginning to turn its true color. She giggled, and when I didn't acknowledge her, she straightened beside me.

"Oh, Ouji," she said, touching my face so I would turn to look at her again. "You're just as sturdy as I remember you."

"Serendipity, you know that I-"

"You what, Ouji?"

"I haven't really seen you for-"

"Yes, but we were so close before I had to go," she said, her eyes boring into mine. They really were beautiful, so deep I could lose myself in them. "I was only gone for a little while."

I nod, slowly. "You're right," I say, "Of course, but-"

She lifted a hand and toyed with my shoulder-length hair, twisting it around her fingers. "I have to go back to the Bathhouse," she said, smiling quietly to herself. "The workers need me there, or they'll get rowdy."

"You're quite a leader," I said, sighing, "Where would we be without you?"

"Well, you'd be alone," she said, "because there's no one for you but me, and the bathhouse would still be run by a woman too clumsy to give trespassing humans what they deserve."

I stand, catching her hand and gently guiding her up with me. "Just don't overwork yourself, alright?"

"Sure, Ouji, don't worry about me," she said, "I'm perfectly fine. Why don't you come with me? You can give me someone to talk to."

"Anything."

She grinned at me, but as we started walking back toward the House, I noticed a far-off black cloud in the sky, just barely catching in my peripheral vision. After a moment, I recognized the voices that rose on the wind, carrying the ominous echo of many, many sounds converging into one. It sounded like an unkindness of ravens. I hadn't realized that I had stopped in my tracks until Serendipity did, too, her lips pulling down at the corners. "Oh," she gasped. When I glanced down at her, I saw the tears pooling in her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked frantically, moving to brush the hair out of her face where the tear-stains held them there like glue.

"It's that woman," she said, her voice low with the beginnings of a sob. When I opened my mouth to ask, she shook her head, stopping me dead.

"Is there anything I can do to help you handle it?" I tried again, reaching forward to touch her hand. I had to stop her from crying, before it...

She frowned. "They want to hurt me, Ouji. The birds."

"I can get rid of them for you," I whispered, softly. I didn't have to think about it- my skin became smooth white scale, body lengthening into the snake-like form of the dragon. My hair became a mint-green mane. My teeth became razors, my nails talons, my tail whipping out behind me like wire.

My surroundings took on a different light- shadows of blue and silver replaced the black and gray. The air became more viscous, and the light was reflected into millions of pinpoints of brightness continuously alighting the sky like stars.

I was in my own world now.

"You're so beautiful," Serendipity said, softly, lifting a hand to brush the side of my face. The reflection of light on the water that was now the sky created a simmer to her movements, alighting her skin. She reached forward and hugged my nose to her, letting her forehead rest on mine. "You do love me, don't you, Ouji?"

* * *

><p>"I know you," the girl said, eyeing me warily. I was frozen in place. She didn't <em>know<em> me- it almost seemed like she _was _me.

Well, me without my imperfections.

Her hair was the same color as mine, and it was worn up in the same pony tail that I'd worn since I was five. Except where my hair had a certain uncontrollable poof that _almost_ looked like a curl, her hair was in perfect, glossy near-curl waves that looked like hours had been spent just to arrange them. She had my eyes, but they were deeper, more perfectly shaped than mine were. The same thin arms and legs, but with more of a willowy grace than I had ever had. Same body, fuller curves. Where I was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, she wore a tight, deep red sweater and black jeans.

I wanted to hit her.

She giggled at me. Her voice was softer than mine, too. I scowled.

"You _are_ that girl," she said, walking towards me until we were standing face to face. I didn't step back.

"Who are you?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the customers?"

She just laughed at me again.

"I've already prepared the place," she said, turning to look behind her at the Bathhouse. Now that I looked closer at it, I could see the differences in the building. There was even more color than there had been before- in fact, everything looked brighter, as if it had recently gotten a new coat of paint.

"_You've _prepared the place?" I asked, still staring at the building behind her. "Who-"

"I'm the supervisor," she said, which brought my attention back to her immediately. "The boss. I don't have to do much else but make sure the others are working."

"Wait," I said, frowning, "I thought Yubaba was the..."

"She was," the girl agreed, smiling, "But she was replaced. Because of you, actually, Chihiro."

"That can't be right, I couldn't have- they can't-" And then I finally realized, "...You just called me Chihiro."

"I did." She was laughing at me again. "It _is_ your name, isn't it?"

"Yes, but... how did you know it?"

"We have some friends in common."

The way her voice was steadily calming, getting lower and more intense, was beginning to frighten me. She was my height exactly, and her eyes were locked with mine. I gritted my teeth. It was too much like staring into my own.

"Don't be frightened of me." She was smiling; I could hear the sneer in her voice. "I just want to talk to you. I just want to get to know you, like a friend of mine once did."

I looked down at the wood of the bridge, unable to stand facing the me that wasn't. I spoke without looking up.

"Do you know a spirit named Kohaku?"

There was a space of silence during which the air grew thicker. I could feel a horrible wave of energy coming from the space in front of me, like the will of anger itself being forced against me, coming from where the girl stood. I could barely breathe through it.

"No."

Her voice had changed. It had lowered, and what came from her direction was a growl, not a giggle. I shivered involuntarily, glad I couldn't see her beneath my bangs, hanging in front of my bowed head.

I didn't know what to do. What was I supposed to say?

But I didn't need to say anything- she spoke before I did.

"I wish Ouji were here," she said suddenly, her voice becoming all velvet once more. Except she didn't seem to be speaking to me. Her voice, in fact, sounded like an order given to a favorite subordinate. I blinked, my eyes slowly making their way to rest on her left shoulder, where I didn't have to look directly at her.

"Who's Ouji?" I whispered.

"Here he comes..." She said, voice brightening cheerfully.

I looked up when a slow gust of wind blew my hair over my shoulders as a shadow passed over me, and a powerful force slithered through the air overhead. When the figure passed by, slicing back around to face me, I saw him.

It was Haku.

Knowing he was here made it easier to look up, to face the girl in front of me, to stand my ground and breathe easy. He was here to help me, now.

His body danced like a ribbon through the air, his scales reflecting the sunlight, giving him a faintly metallic look.

It was him. There wasn't a doubt in my mind.

But when his claws touched the ground, they didn't skid to a stop in front of me, his head didn't fill my arms so I could finally hug him again. He didn't greet me.

It was Serendipity that he went to, corded body creating a low wall around her, his head moving to rest on the top of hers as if she were a delicate gift he was afraid of losing.

As if she might have been... me.

His eyes locked on mine as if I were a stranger.

He had grown. The muscle under his scales pulsed with every movement, corded and strained with power. His horns, his talons... they were sharper, longer, thicker. He was the beast of nightmares that had always been in my most treasured dreams.

He was the friend I'd since before wanted to know again, taken away from me.

"You're _her_, Chihiro," Serendipity said, again, watching my gaze lock with the dragon's.

"You _bitch_," The words came out of my mouth before I could hold them back, but as I said them, her own voice layered over mine, saying the same words in the same tone.

"You _bitch._"

Serendipity recoiled from me, as if I had been the only one to speak.

"I only wanted to be your friend," she said, and to my confusion (and maybe triumph) tears welled in her eyes. "I've always wanted a sister, I thought it would be you."

But then her voice darkened again, and the same energy seemed to glow from inside her. "_But now you've hurt me._"

And then all sound was obliterated by the single, all consuming roar of the dragon, blasting through my eardrums. The shockwave knocked me back, sending me sprawling to the ground. When I looked up, the still eyes of Serendipity met my gaze, cool and calm.

And then, moving faster than I could follow with my eyes, the dragon threw himself at me, talons reaching, jaws gaping wide, teeth waiting to feel my flesh tear between them.

()()()()()()()()()()

When I opened my eyes, I breathed out a sigh of relief to find that it had only been a-

Except that it hadn't.

My surroundings crashed down on me with traumatizing force. It wasn't my bedroom, the walls weren't the soft blue they should have been. The walls were white, the soft couch I was sitting on was white. The entire room, fully furnished with every comfort item to be imagined, nearly blended into the wall.

I looked down to find that I was dressed in a colorless robe. It was similar to a plastic wrap that a doctor would wreathe you in, tied at the back of my neck and just above my hips, falling down to my knees.

There wasn't a sound in the entire room.

The only oddity was a faint smell, like roses. Roses and... soap.

And blood.

When I looked down at myself, I noticed the only color in the room was coming from me. Along both of my forearms were slash marks, bound not quite entirely with white bandaging. I felt a pull on the skin of my chest and stomach when I moved my arm forward to examine it, and fear of the damage I would see was the only thing stopping me from looking at what shape my torso was in.

I raised a hand to the skin just under my eye, where a slight stinging sensation was accompanied by a slight moistness. My finger came away red.

I tried to take a deep breath, to calm myself, but the movement sent searing pain up my neck, down my chest, along my spine, and I fell to my knees, sobbing before I could register the pain.

It wasn't only the physical pain that sent me to the ground, it was more than just the burning in my nerves.

It was that I was trapped here, in this room, in the Spirit World.

And the reason I'd come at all had tried to kill me.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, well, I hope it wasn't too terrible. If you hate it, you can scream at me all you want. To be honest, I love degrading criticism just as much as constructive criticism. It helps me either way! And if you don't want to review me because you feel like it'll be considered a compliment of my work, I'll also take a PM with fire.<strong>

**Did you know that the human brain stores more info than 4 Terrabytes?**

**I'll get another chapter up some time in the future.**

**-Susu**


	3. Bandages

**I'm sorry if I anger any of you. I'm working on an HG fic, a YGO fic, and this fic. So... A fic about children killing each other, a fic about adults playing children's card games, and a fic about the Spirit world.**

**I'm multifandomal.**

**So... yes. Here.**

**Disclaimer: OWN SPIRITED AWAY, I DO NOT. Own those OCs, I do. OWN ANYTHING ELSE, I DO NOT!**

***Listening to Treason by Kutless... jerking head back and forth like a nerd.***

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><p>I remembered barely being able to hear the rain when it fell over the roof of my home. If it had been just a small, light shower, it would pass by without my knowledge at all. I couldn't imagine how I hadn't ever heard the gentle patter. Now, sitting completely alone in the great, white room, I was sure it would have sounded magnificently loud. The silence, the white blankness... it consumed everything. The smells of soap and flowers had gone long ago to leave me with absolutely nothing except what I could have sworn was the disconcerting smell of infection.<p>

I didn't know how long it had been. Maybe a day– I'd fallen asleep once, so I was hoping that maybe it was mid-afternoon, though I couldn't tell for sure. The room never dimmed with the setting of the sun. It was lit brightly, like a hospital's hallway, every hour of every day, as far as I'd seen. It felt like I was in a psych-ward, where they suspended all of your senses in order to calm your mind.

It was making me crazy.

That wasn't my only concern, though. The bandages around my torso were starting to peel, and they felt heavy, soaked through with blood. The bandages on the smaller scratches and tears were also looking sopped.

They hurt, too. throbbing with every small movement I made.

Did the spirits know of infection? Did they understand that if they didn't pay me attention, I would end up a dead human body in their bathhouse?

Screw them. They could carry me out a rotting corpse. Part of me was wondering if that was why they hadn't let Haku kill me. Were they out of disposal options or something?

None of it made sense, and it hurt to think about any of it.

()()()()()()()

It was several hours before a small serving girl showed up, opening the door and waking up my senses.

For once, there was color within my sight. She was wearing a bright green kimono and her fire-red hair was done up in sparkling blue ribbons. Her eyes held the same ferocity of color, a bright violet. Her skin was the color of porcelain. Sound came to my ears– the noises of the bathhouse beyond the door coursed through my little room. Smell wafted gently toward me– the faint aroma of the kitchen and that of the rice balls on the plate in her hands...

But then she set the plate on the ground, barely looked at me sideways, and left, closing the door gently behind her and shutting off my connection to the world.

I began by eating the rice balls slowly, but started downing them faster as I found my hunger, ignoring the constant screaming in the lacerations across my body as I did so. There were plenty to serve as a meal, more. Enough for the entire day. I stopped eating once approximately one third of the plate's bounty was gone, deciding that spreading out my rations would make things a little more comfortable.

Having no concept of time, I wasn't sure when to eat next.

So I didn't. Not until I was starving. I could store food reserves if I hid the meal every time the girl came with more. Since I was only assuming she'd come at least once a day, I would be careful.

And maybe I'd lose weight. Look a little more like the bitch who put me here.

()()()()()()()

The second time the door opened, it was a boy who entered. He was my age. Or he appeared that way, at least. He wore thin glasses with a silver rim that shown next to the dark color of his chocolate hair. The silver made his brown eyes seem dull and pale in comparison. In his hands, he held a small toothpaste tube and several long, white ribbons of cloth.

Medicine. Bandages.

So maybe I would live. If I didn't already have an infection.

For a few seconds he stood there staring at me expectantly, until I finally realized what he as waiting for. Smirking at him, I lifted my shirt to show my stomach. I could feel the tug when I moved my arms. The pain extended over my chest.

Why had they sent a boy?

I sighed and brought the robe painfully over my head, the motion bringing a small cry out of me as I moved my arms so high. Somehow the Lord had blessed me with no reaching scars to keep me from wearing the white bra and underwear that someone had dressed me in.

The boy was silent as he reached out to unwrap my old bandages. His touch was gentle, careful and practiced– I barely felt him, and if I did it felt more like the brush of butterfly wings than the solid touch of fingers. When the bandages were gone, I held my breath and looked down on myself, seeing the torn flesh for the first time.

There were furious, slash-like wounds down my belly, ribboning from just below my bra-line to my hip, creating three diagonal streaks that reached parallel to each other across my body. When he took off the bandages over my thigh, I saw huge piercings in the flesh. Talon marks. The bandages over my arms revealed teeth marks the size of knives, similar in size to the grazings down my neck and over my right shoulder.

The boy applied a cool-feeling medicine to the torn skin on my front and back first, drawing from me a sigh of alleviation. Each new application of the medicine put out the fire in my injuries. I could faintly remember slamming into the wood of the bridge, which must have splintered and cut into the skin of my back. The dragon's talons had torn my body, and something hit my head... but past that, I couldn't remember exactly what had happened. I could vaguely picture the scenario, though. His claws reaching out and slicing through my arms as he pressed me against the bridge. The talons of one foot screaming down my belly, the talons of the other finding purchase in my leg. His teeth reaching down to finish me, but merely sliding down my skin before being stopped by... something. Someone.

When the lacerations and piercings had been cooled with the strange medicine, the boy wrapped them with fresh bandaging. Finally, after the most pressing injuries had been handled, he unwrapped my head.

He didn't apply the medicine to the scrapes on my forehead or under my eye, but instead padded them down with a moist sponge. I wasn't sure what was on the sponge, but it didn't smell like water and was a lot colder than the medicine. It smelled more like berries than alcohol.

All he did then was dry away the droplets left on my forehead and under my eye. He didn't add any cloth; deciding, apparently, that they didn't need it. He acted even more gentle over my face, eyes riveted on the task at hand, fingers still barely touching at the scrapes.

He didn't look at me once. Not my uncovered body, nor to meet my gaze. Not until I had put the white robes back on did he catch my eye. He didn't avoid me in an embarrassed manner, or watch me in a desirous one. He simply acted businesslike, unperturbed.

I had wanted to ask him why they'd sent a man to do this job, but it was obvious. I hadn't felt any pain at all under his care.

"Thank you," I said, quietly.

To my surprise, he actually responded to me. "Please accept my apologies."

"What?" I sputtered, bewildered.

"For Serendipity," he said, slowly. "It's only because she wishes she were you."

I wasn't quite sure what to say to him, now that I knew he would talk. I was stuck between wanting to scream and blame it all on him, and wanting to cry in his arms and tell him everything that had happened. I _wanted _to go home. To leave this place in which I wasn't wanted. I felt like a child for thinking it, but if no one wanted me here, did I have a reason to want to stay?

"Why didn't the other girl, the one with the food, say anything?" I asked, trying to focus on something else.

"Her job is much quicker than mine," he said, softly. His voice was a comfort in itself. He didn't seemed concerned about anything at all, and he never spoke above a low murmur. The sound of his voice made me feel calmer. Maybe that was part of why he was so good at healing. "I could take any amount of time in the world. They don't know much about what I do."

"Why are you staying to talk?" I inquired, hoping the question would urge him to do just that.

"I know what it's like to be locked in this room for days."

"She did it to you, too?"

"No," he said, his voice lowering, even though the room was soundproof. "I–"

A harsh knocking suddenly became the door, startling me. When I turned reflexively, jerking my neck, something split and the fire was back again. I low moan escaped my throat. The boy turned to wince with me when he heard.

Before he could do anything to wash away the pain as he had before, the loud rapping proceeded, drawing him up to his feet to open the door.

"Yes?" he answered. His voice was cold. From my place on the ground, I noticed how tall and thin he was. He was like me, more like a wire than anything else. The only difference was that he was taller. Much taller.

"She asks why the bandages are taking so much time," replied a voice, devoid of emotion.

"The patient is struggling, so it's difficult to apply the medicine correctly." He lied so smoothly, _I_ nearly believed him. "I'll be done in a minute." He shut the door on the older man, and turned to face me again.

"Don't jump like that again," he said, cautiously. "Here."

He moved forward and lifted my shirt himself, this time only away from the back of my neck, seeming to know exactly where the pain had come from. He slid a hand over the burning section of skin on my neck, and gently pressed down over and under the stretched cut from where the pain emanated.

The relief was immediate. "How did you-"

"As I said," he whispered, moving his hand back away. "I just know what it's like."

He stood and moved to the door. Before he left, he said quietly, without turning, "I will come for the care of your health at five in the afternoon every day; Sayuri comes at 9 every morning with your food."

When he shut the door behind him, I realized how right he must have been. He really _did_ know what it was like, to understand that my complete unawareness of time was one of the things that was maddening me most.

How was it that he knew these things? How could he pinpoint where the pain came from just by seeing my motion? How did he know what I wanted to hear?

He couldn't have been much older than me. He couldn't be a real doctor-

_"I just_ _know what it's like."_

I hadn't even asked his name.

* * *

><p>"I know that we hate her, Ouji, but we have to let her live."<p>

I scowled, staring at the human girl's door from where I sat on the ground across the hall next to Serendipity. "Why?" I ground out through clenched teeth.

Serendipity rested a small hand on my shoulder, and I fought back my tension.

"I need her alive," she said, quietly. "For as long as possible..."

"She's a human," I said, gently. "We'll just keep getting older after she's been long dead."

"I know..." Serendipity whispered. A tear pooled in her eye and slid down her cheek. I snatched out a hand to catch it before it could fall from her chin, lifting the droplet up and away from her face. I smoothed its track from under her eye with my other thumb, gently following the path it made on her skin.

"I don't understand," I said, trying to get her to look at me. "What could you possibly use–"

"Serendipity, I'm finished, in case you wanted to know," came a low voice that seemed used to whispering.

"Thank you, Jun," she said without standing or looking up, still red around the eyes. The man she spoke to appeared around the same age as Serendipity, though I didn't think I'd seen him before. "Did she really–"

"Yes, she's distressed," he said flatly, but his eyes had wandered to meet mine. He held them there, gaze dark. "She should be feeling better tomorrow."

"Well, continue to see her just as well." Serendipity finally looked up when she stood to approach him, crossing her arms. She was much shorter than he was, her head coming up to maybe his neck. "Be a hero. That's all you can do, isn't it? Make her feel like she could be happy."

"Of course," he murmured, "Anything for you, sister."

* * *

><p><strong>More will come. Sorry that this one wasn't as "HOLY CRAP- THE DRAGON" as the other one, but you needed to meet some people. Review if you liked it, don't if you didn't, do if you didn't, don't if your busy. I don't know.<strong>

**And thank you for pressuring my speed. It helps, you know. :)**

**Listening to "Forever" by Red, now. Since I was listening to music while doing the final edits... I have to edit it again.**

***Half an hour later***

**FINAL CHECK COMPLETE! Tell me if I missed anything... in fact, yell at me if I did.**

**~Susu.**


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